Wrongly jailed boys in lawsuit

Two under-age Indonesian boys allegedly sexually harassed by male criminals in Sydney's Silverwater jail are among the 23 former ''people smugglers'' planning to sue the Australian government.

Lawyers for the young boat crew who were locked up for months or years after falsely being identified as adults say the boys are still traumatised by their experience.

''They were not touched at all but the adult prisoners showed them their genitals and showed them how to have sex,'' according to their lawyer, Lisa Hiariej.

''They are now traumatised by it, the memory of being sexually harassed keeps coming back . . . the two boys were between 15 and 16 years old when it happened in 2010.''

Under laws introduced by the Rudd Government in 2008, many poor fishermen were given mandatory prison sentences of up to five years for ''aggravated people smuggling'', even though their ages ranged from 14 to 17.

They were jailed as adults after police used a discredited wrist x-ray procedure to say they were over 18.

The law suit, which was announced late last month, is a joint effort between Ms Hiariej and Sydney-based lawyer Penelope Purcell, who is working on a no-win-no-fee basis. Yesterday they were joined by the Indonesian government-funded Commission for Child Protection, KPAI. The head of the commission's legal division, Apong Herlina, said the boys were seeking compensation, but ''not merely money''.

''We hope the Australian Government can help by giving these children a better future - to empower the children so that they need not work as poor fishermen anymore.''

And parliamentarian Lily Wahid, the sister of former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid, said her parliamentary committee, which oversees foreign affairs, would call the country's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa to appear before it next Monday.

She said the child protection commission and the country's human rights body, Komnas Ham should also meet Australian ambassador Greg Moriarty.

''Both sides need to work out ways to prevent this from happening again,'' she said.

A spokesman said the Australian Embassy in Jakarta met regularly with Ms Wahid's commission, and staff from the embassy had already met to ''discuss co-operation on people smuggling''.

''The Ambassador is open to continuing discussions with her and Commission 1,'' the spokesman said.